Robert Gardiner
Senior Lecturer in Music Education and Programme Lead Music Education (PGCE)
EdD, MA, PGCE, BMus(Hons), LRSM
Email: [email protected]
Strategic leadership of education studies across academic programmes.
Leading and developing the Master’s of Education Degree, and the PGCE in Music with specialist instrumental teaching (in collaboration with MMU).
Develping research into pedagogy and initial teacher training.
Developing collaborative educational projects within the RNCM and throughout the region.
Supporting RNCM students to develop their educational experience and opportunites.
Working collaboratively with local and national educaitonal partnerships.
Robert is a professional educator specialising in whole-class music pedagogies and the combination of instrumental and curricular music education. He studied for his Bachelor degree at the RNCM, completed his PGCE at Manchester Metropolitan University and the RNCM, and then his Master of Arts degree at Zurich University of the Arts. He completed his EdD in 2022, exploring student teacher development throughout their Initial Teacher Education year.
He is a highly experienced educational practitioner, designing and implementing diverse music pedagogies in all sectors of primary, secondary and higher education. He also works in staff development, supporing schools to enable teachers to become confident music leaders. Robert has also led and directed numerous youth ensembles and choirs.
Robert is an active researcher with a particular interest in music educaiton, teacher educaiton and educaitonal policy. Recent publications have explored the connections between socio-cultural context and teachers’ identities, values and aspirations. This has focussed on various theoretical conceptulisations of teacher subjectivity and the interplay between discourse, culture, society, ideology and music educaiton.
While working as a full-time educator, Robert has maintained his clarinet playing. Particular interests include contemporary performance practice, multi-generational music making, and chamber music.
Current and Future Research
Robert’s current research explores the connections between music education and society. Particular insists include the influence of policy on teachers lives, and in particular the influence of recent English policy changes on new and developing teachers’ confidence and efficacy. This has included specific projects with student teachers, school teachers and pupils, drawing in post-structuralist and socio-constructionist principles to examine cultures, politics and discourses within education.
Research Areas
- Multi-cultural teachers education
- Transitions and progression in school
- Philosophy, theory and practice of music education
Undergraduate Teaching
- Large group instrumental teaching
- Individual teaching
- Educaiton, Society and Culture
- Artist development
Postgraduate Teaching
- PhD Teacher Education
- Philosophy, Theory and Practice for Music Education (MEd)
- Research Methods in Music Education (MEd)
- PGCE Subject Pedagogy
- Practical pedagogy
Research Supervision
Hartley, Jennie Claire (2023) Using group improvisation and imaginative listening to nurture creative autonomy in A-level music students: teaching composition for examination purposes in England. Doctoral thesis (PhD), The Royal Northern College of Music in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University.
Selected Outputs
Journal Articles
- ‘To see ourselves as others see us : student teacher reflections as articulations of ideology’, Music Education Research, 22 (2020), 1. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2019.1703924
- Robert Gardiner, ‘Desire for Recognition and Recognition of Desire : A Theoretical Account of the Influence of Student Teacher Fantasy on Self-Efficacy’, Action , Criticism & Theory for Music Education, 19 (2020), 54.
EdDoc Thesis
Assimilation and Resistance: Becoming Music Teachers in a Marginalised Educational Context. (2022) Doctoral Thesis, MMU
